Five former Israeli ambassadors said in interviews with Ynet News that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should cancel his upcoming speech to Congress.
The news outlet talked with six former ambassadors about the controversy. Though they declined to criticize their successor, Ron Dermer, who has been at the center of the speech flap, five of the six said that the prime minister shouldn’t go forward with the speech.
Ynet News spoke with former ambassadors Moshe Arens, Moshe Arad, Itamar Rabinovich, Shimon Peres, Danny Ayalon, Sallai Meridor, and Michael Oren, Dermer’s immediate predecessor. Their combined service dates back to the early 1980s.
“If the prime minister is perceived to be meddling in US politics, it has implications for the Jewish community,” Arad said.
“If he were to convince me that his actions were of benefit with regard to Iran, despite the cost of the damage to our relations with the United States, I’d support him,” Meridor said. “But we are paying a double price, and Congress in the end isn’t united against Iran. His appearance before Congress won’t be beneficial and may even hurt the things for which he is going there.”
Or as Rabinovich put it most succinctly: “He made a mistake – period.”
